植物逆境胁迫抗性的功能基因组研究策略

植物对逆境胁迫抗性的功能基因组研究主要是寻找胁迫抗性位点在相关物种基因组中的保守位置，发现胁迫反应中的高度保守序列，确定植物胁迫反应的调控机理，进而得到植物对逆境胁迫抗性的关键代谢途径和其中的关键调控因子，为进一步选择用于改良植物对逆境胁迫抗性的关键基因奠定基础。本文从主要模式植物(苔藓类植物、复苏植物、盐土植物和甜土植物)、主要技术策略(基因的差异表达分析、基因表达序列标签、cDNA芯片技术。基因表达序列分析和基因敲除和突变体筛选分析)和生物信息学方法(数据分析的生物信息学方法设计到序列比较、比较基因组学、电子克隆)等三个方面对国内外植物逆境胁迫抗性的功能基因组研究策略作了全面综述。

Strategies on functional genomics to plant abiotic stress tolerance

Environmental factors that impose water-deficit stress, such as drought, salinity and temperature extremes, place major limits on plant productivity. To overcome these limitations and improve plant productivity, marker-assisted selection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that are linked to tolerance and genetic engineering also have had limited success owing to the genetic complexity of stress tolerance traits and stress responses. A more complete understanding of the complexity and interplay of osmotic, desiccation and temperature tolerance mechanisms, and their corresponding signaling pathways, is therefore needed .Therefore functional genomics of plant stress tolerance is now going on through comparative genomics studies of an evolutionarily diverse set of model organisms such as bryophytes, resurrection plants, halophyte and glycophyte,through the use of techniques such as differential display and high-throughput analysis of expressed sequence tags, large-scale parallel analysis of gene expression, targeted"knock-out" and random mutagenesis and through the assistance of bioinformatics. The discovery of novel genes, determination of their expression patterns in response to abiotic stress, and an improved understanding of their roles in stress adaptation (obtained by the use of functional genomics) will provide the basis of effective engineering strategies leading to greater stress tolerance.